Chapter 3: What Is Faith-Promoting?

Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true... But behold, as the seed swellith, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grou, then you must needs say that the seed is good; for behold it swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow. And now. behold, will not this strengthen your faith? Yeah, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say I know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and beginneth to grow--Alma 32:21,30

This scripture basically answered my question about what can be faith-promoting. Here is a small story about Dr. Talmage when he was a young boy.

As a small boy I was the proud possessor of a gift book on the animal kingdom; I was inter-noisy iconoclast-- a disciple of Ingersoll whose name I have forgotten-- gained considerable notoriety and newspaper space by attempting to discredit the Bible by discrediting the story of Jonah and the whale. His principal argument was that the whale is known to have a very narrow throat only a few inches across, and so that it would be physically impossible for a whale to swallow a man. An equally noisy ecclesiastic took issue with him, and in several newspaper columns of perfervid diatribe damned the iconoclast for being a faith-destroyer and maintained that "all things were possible with God," even to the passing of a six foot man through a two inch tube and back; he insisted that a firm belief in the miracles, and particularly this miracle. was essential to a proper appreciation of the Bible and exhorted his readers to "hold to the faith."

He wrote in a very convincing style, but his ideas did not seem to make sense. I tok the problem to my father. He said simply: "read your Bible and tell me what you find."

So I went back to the original account and read: "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah" (Jonah 1:17). But my favorite gift book had informed me that a whale was not a great fish but a warm-blooded mammal. So, it was obvious that the dimensions of a whale's throat had nothing to do with the case!

"The night after I read this I had a very vivid dream about a shark" John Gillis

Brother Talmage gives two tips on faith destroying and faith promoting

1. Anything that presents the acceptance of any truth must be classed as faith-destroying
2. Anything that contributes to the understanding, or facilitates a keener appreciation, of any truth must be included under the term "faith-promoting"